Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology that is to be applied to various kinds of processing apparatuses, each of which implements a processing by using a pointing device so as to make a cursor, currently displayed on a screen, move thereon.
Description of Related Art
Generally speaking, a GUI (Graphical User Interface) that makes a cursor, currently displayed on a screen, move thereon, according to user's operations for moving a pointing device, has been widely employed in various kinds of processing apparatuses. In this connection, any one of a mouse, a trackball, a touch pad, etc. may be employed as the pointing device concerned. The user may use the cursor to designate any one of objects, including a button, an icon, a tub, etc., currently displayed on the screen. Then, the processing apparatus implements a processing allotted to the object above-designated.
Further, this kind of GUI is also introduced into an image forming apparatus that implements a production printing. In this connection, with respect to the operations, including display operations, performed on the above-mentioned GUI by using the mouse, various kinds of the proposals are set forth in the Patent Documents as cited in the following.
Still further, the operation for automatically moving the cursor to be employed in the GUI, the other operation for displaying a pop-up window in the vicinity of the object designated by the cursor, etc. are set forth in the Patent Documents cited in the following as well.
For instance, when the user uses a mouse to conduct screen operations, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication NO. 09-244863 sets forth a method for jumping a cursor to a button having the highest probability (for instance, [OK]-button), by regarding the user's mouse operation as the trigger at the time of changing the window.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication NO. 08-152972 sets forth another method for automatically jumping a cursor to a position of the predetermined value button of the dialog to be outputted (for instance, [OK]-button), by regarding the user's mouse operation as the trigger, irrespective of the position of the mouse cursor currently displayed.
In this connection, in the GUI as above-mentioned, sometimes, the apparatus concerned may request the user to input an instruction and/or an allowance, due to a certain status change of the apparatus concerned. In such the case as above-mentioned, a message displaying section may display a message, indicating “Please do xxx” or the like, onto the display screen.
However, in an apparatus recently put in the market, operation items and setting items to be displayed on a display screen have increased more and more, and accordingly, a large number of items are displayed within the single display screen. Owing to such the situation, sometimes, the user could not recognize the above-mentioned message of “Please do xxx” or the like, currently displayed by the apparatus side.
Further, since the apparatus has become complicated, sometimes, the user could not understand that the message of “Please do xxx”, caused by the status change of the apparatus concerned, concretely means what the user should do.
As well as the above, in order to notify the user of the current status of the apparatus, caused by the status change of the apparatus concerned, sometimes, the message of “The operation of ---- has been completed” is displayed on the display screen by the apparatus side. Even in this case, provided that the user is a layman in operations of the apparatus concerned, sometimes, the user could not recognize the above-mentioned message displayed by the apparatus side, or the user could not understand what he should do corresponding to the message notified by the apparatus side.